The present invention is directed to a rolling protective shutter assembly which has a protective shutter, for covering a window or door opening, that may be rolled up into a shutter housing when not in use.
Rolling protective shutters are conventional and are used to provide protection against extreme weather conditions and to deter theft, for example. One such rolling protective shutter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,322, issued to Miller on Nov. 19, 1996, entitled "Rolling Protective Shutters," which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of that patent, the Miller shutter is composed of a plurality of individual slats and a plurality of hinges interconnecting the slats. Each of the slats has a pair of end portions, and the slats include a first set of slats and a second set of slats, each of the slats in the first and second sets being alternated so that each of the hinges is connected to one of the slats in the first set and one of the slats in the second set. The shutter assembly has a pair of shutter tracks and means for rolling the shutter from an extended position in which the end portions of the slats are disposed in the shutter tracks to a retracted position in which the shutter is rolled up on a shutter support member. The hinges and the shutter tracks are adapted to facilitate, when the shutter is in the extended position, the slats in the first set of slats to occupy a first relative position and the slats in the second set of slats to occupy a second relative position.